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Chandigarh, Feb 11 (UNI) Political parties today wound-up their campaign to woo masses for the Punjab Assembly and Amritsar parliamentary by-poll on February 13 under a keen watch by the Election Commission which made the canvassing a clean, if somewhat a tame affair.

The over a month-long campaign was by and large peaceful except for one major incident of clash between the SAD and Congress workers in the Beas constituency in which a SAD activist died, leading to postponement of polls there to March 11. The EC also postponed elections to February 24 in Valtoha due to the death of CPI candidate Kulwinder Singh.

Inclement weather in the last two days hit the campaign and a number of rallies had to be cancelled as the star campaigners failed to turn up due to rain.

All the 1038 candidates in fray for 115 seats, were kept on their toes by frequent reprimands by the EC to political stalwarts as well as its own officials, its strict implemention of the ban on defacement of public property and a tab on poll expenses.

As a result, cavalcades of luxury vehicles, grand pandals for rallies and expensive high-tech audio-visual war were hardly seen.

Life-size cut-outs, colourful festoons, banners and posters were also less visible at public places.

To keep up the political tempo under such a strict vigil, political parties resorted to frequent rallies of national and prominent state leaders and roped in film stars while local activists concentrated on door-to-door contact to convince more than 16.65 million voters.

Local entertainers and comedians were in good demand, engaged by major political parties to regale the crowds waiting for the VIP speakers.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi played the ''Centre card'' and cautioned against the ''threat to the country by divisive forces'' while garnering support for the ruling Congress nominees, prominent among whom are Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, Deputy Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, state Congress President S S Dullo and Deputy Speaker Darbari Lal.

The Opposition SAD-BJP alliance brought in former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former deputy prime minister L K Advani and BJP chief Rajnath Singh who lashed at the Congress leaders for playing the ''terror card''.

Mr Vajpayee described the attempt by the ruling party to raise the ''bogey of terrorism as ''very unfortunte'' while Mr Advani urged the voter to give ''a befitting snub'' to the Congress ''which itself had nurtured the 'Bhasmasur' (demon) of terrorism to counter Akali poularity in Punjab.'' Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and JD(U) President Sharad Yadav and actors Vinod Khanna, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha, Smriti Irani hit on extensive campaign trail for the SAD-BJP alliance, whose major contestants include SAD President Parkash Singh Badal, former SGPC President Bibi Jagir Kaur and BJP's Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has locked horns with Finance Minister Surinder Singla in a multi-cornered contest in the Amritsar Parliamentary by-poll.

The Chief Ministers of Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana Shiela Dikshit, Virbhadra Singh, Om Prakash Chautala respectively, besides Union Minister Ambika Soni, also addressed the rallies, appealing to the electorate to vote for the Congress. Countering them was former union minister and senior BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Shanta Kumar and former chief ministers of Himachal and Haryana, Prem Kumar Dhumal and O P Chautala, respectively who canvassed extensively for the SAD-BJP alliance.

The Congress stressed on ''power of progress for prosperity'' while the SAD-BJP combine waxed eloquent on price-hike, farmer suicide, financial mismanagement and corruption. Issues like water and power also prominently figured in the campaign, however, issues like female foeticide and drug abuse were put on a back burner.

While the Congress and the Akali Dal-BJP combine remain the front-runners, nominees of the BSP, SAD(A), CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML), SP, NCP, LJP and Bharatiya Jan Shakti Party along with a large number of Independents also hope to make a political fortune. LJP chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, CPI secretary A B Bardhan, BJSP president Uma Bharti and BSP supremo Mayawati also campaigned for their party candidates.

Former MP Simranjit Singh Mann, who is also in the fray, was the lone campaigner for his party, SAD(A). Former Prime Minister V P Singh and his Jan Morcha colleague also addressed a rally or two appealing to the Punjabis not to be swayed by false promises and ''think before casting their votes''. As the Jan Morcha is not contesting the polls, Mr V P Singh's appeal was more in the form of a sermon.

The Congress, the SAD-BJP combine and the BSP are contesting all the 115 seats, followed by CPI (24), NCP (15) and CPI-M (14).

Besides nominees of other parties, there are as many as 641 independents in the fray, many of whom were rebels from the two major parties.

Thousands of political workers today made last minute efforts to woo the voters and there was a spurt in vehicles fitted with loud-speakers making rounds of markets and mohallas blaring slogans and short appeals of prominent leaders. The personal contact will continue till the polling day.

The state's borders with Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and Union Territory of Chandigarh will be sealed tomorrow to prevent the entry of undesirable elements.

As many as 16,757 polling stations, including 4797 sensitive and 1034 hyper-sensitive booths, have been established for the polling and around 90,000 polling personnel will be put on election duty.

About 200 companies of paramilitary forces are also being deployed for conducting free and fair polls in the state.

The polling parties will leave for their destinations tomorrow.

The polling will be held from 0800 hrs to 1700 hrs on Tuesday.

As the campaign came to a close, the state election machinery swung into action, asking people who are not voters to leave the assembly constituencies or to go to the constituency where they are registered as voters. Political functionaries, party workers, procession functionaries and campaign functionaries, who had been brought from outside a constituency to bolster the campaign were also directed to leave as their continuted presence may undermine the atmosphere of free and fair poll.

Para Military Force (PMF) companies staged flag marches in a number of sensitive constituencies this evening to instill a sense of confidence in the voters. The election administration assisted by the police vacated all community halls, lodges and guest houses where campaign functionaries were kept by political parties.

Constituencies were virtually sealed as police check-posts came up along the borders of all the assembly segments. Vehicular traffic was being checked and the identity of the people or group of people was being carried this evening to find out whether they are voters or not and establish their identity.

A security cordon was also been thrown around polling stations and booths this evening.

UNI